Honey Santana -self-proclaimed queen of lost causes - has a Plan.

She's working on a scheme to help rid the world of irresponsibility, indifference and dinner-time telemarketers. She's also taking part-time telephonist Boyd Shreve and his less-than-enthusiastic mistress to Dismal Key - one of the Everglades' Ten ThousandIslands - for a gentle lesson in civility.

What Honey doesn't know is that lurking in the island's undergrowth is Sammy Tigertail, half-blood Seminole Indian and wholly failed alligator wrestler, with death on his mind; and Honey's deranged co-worker, Louis Piejack, now with most of his fingers surgically mis-attached to the wrong knuckles, and intent on revenge.

A holiday to die for? In Hiaasen's extraordinary universe, anything can happen ...